Funds
Hedge fund investors seemed pretty happy overall with hedge fund performance during Q1 2018, as managers took advantage of the increased market volatility, and the opportunities that created, for many to outperform.
Performance became more difficult overall during Q2 and fund returns by and large lagged, says Cowen Prime Services in its latest market summary.
The average return in Cowen’s universe for Q2 was 1.84 per cent, bringing the average year-to-date return to 4.26 per cent. The median quartile in this group showed gains of 1.44 per cent and 3.04 per cent, respectively, QTD and YTD.
Returns in
Hedge Funds gained 0.54 per cent in July according to the Barclay Hedge Fund Index compiled by BarclayHedge, versus a 3.72 per cent increase in the S&P 500 Total Return Index.
Year to date, the Barclay Index is up 1.04 per cent, while the S&P has gained 6.47 per cent.
“In spite of July’s rise in global equities, hedge fund performance was mixed,” says Sol Waksman, founder and president of BarclayHedge.
Twelve of Barclay’s 17 hedge fund indices gained ground in July, while five had losses. The Healthcare & Biotechnology Index was up 1.83 per cent, Equity Long Bias scored
Euronext has acquired approximately 8 per cent of additional interest in FastMatch, a global FX spot market operator, operating as a Euronext company since August 2017.
In combination with the stake in the Company that Euronext acquired in August 2017, Euronext now owns an approximate 97.3 per cent interest in FastMatch.
The additional interest was acquired by purchasing the remaining shares owned by Dmitri Galinov, co-founding CEO of FastMatch, for USD.001 per share, following his termination for cause by FastMatch. The shares were purchased pursuant to the agreement signed at the time of the acquisition of the Company.
Fund administrator Apex Group (Apex) and Genstar Capital have jointly acquired Custom House, a global hedge fund administrator delivering services to alternative investment managers across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The acquisition adds a further USD24 billion in assets under administration to the Group’s portfolio and is a strong strategic and cultural fit given its independent business model and focus on delivering a personal approach customer service. The addition of the Custom House business bolsters Apex’s existing hedge fund service arm. With offices in Beijing, Chicago, Dublin, Geneva, Hong Kong, Malta, Rotterdam, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Sofia, and Sydney, Custom House
The gross return of the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index for July 2018 measured 0.97 per cent.
Hedge fund flows as measured by the SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index, meanwhile, advanced 0.24 per cent in August.
“SS&C GlobeOp’s Capital Movement Index for August 2018 gained 0.24 per cent, reflecting positive net inflows. This gain was slightly better than the 0.23 per cent gain reported for the same period a year ago for August 2017,” says Bill Stone (pictured), Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. “Together with other recent data points, the Capital Movement Index indicates that the hedge fund sector continues to benefit
Hedge funds returned an average of +0.59 per cent in July, and are +0.79 per cent through the first seven months of 2018, according to eVestment’s latest Hedge Fund Industry Performance Report.
Pockets of good performance though, are still being overshadowed at the aggregate level by underperformance from macro and managed futures products.
Nearly 63 per cent of reporting products produced gains in July, yet eight of the ten largest products declined in the same month.
Quant equity strategies rebounded in July returning +2.25 per cent for the month and turning back positive for the year from -1.27
GAM Investments has announced that all subscriptions and redemptions in its CHF7.3 billion unconstrained/absolute return bond funds (ARBF) have been suspended as of 31 July 2018, following redemption requests of over 10 per cent since the suspension of investment director Tim Haywood (pictured).
The high level of requests led to the firm using its ‘redemption gates’ – devices designed to prevent a fund’s collapse during a stress event, more usually caused by extreme market conditions.
The firm writes that although the funds have the necessary liquidity to serve these requests, the redemptions would lead to a disproportional shift in their
Vida Capital, an alternative asset manager specialising in insurance-linked strategies, has held the final close of Vida Insurance Credit Opportunity Fund II (VICOF II) with USD886 million in capital commitments.
The fund closed ahead of its USD750 million target, reflecting a robust demand for the strategy from leading institutional investors including US and global public pension plans, insurance companies, foundations, family offices, and high-net worth individuals.
VICOF II will pursue the current longevity-based investment opportunity existing within the institutional life settlement and insurance-linked assets space. The fund capitalises on Vida’s demonstrated track record of alternative investing and life settlement
Falling prices for cryptocurrencies, and an uncertain regulatory environment, in 2018 haven’t deterred new crypto investment funds from opening, according to new analysis from Crypto Fund Research.
The firm writes that 2018 is on likely to surpass the previous year in terms of the number of crypto fund launches.
Through July 31, Crypto Fund Research writes that there were 96 new crypto hedge funds and venture capital funds, an annual pace of 165. This would surpass the record 156 crypto funds launched in 2017. More than half of all crypto funds currently in existence have launched in just the last
MTS Markets International, part of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), has enhanced its MTS BondsPro corporate bond trading platform with list trading functionality, enabling participants to benefit from the efficiencies of executing many trades simultaneously.
The tool will streamline traders’ ability to execute trades against more than USD17 billion of real-time resting corporate bond liquidity on MTS BondsPro.
After uploading a list of orders to MTS BondsPro, participants can connect with multiple liquidity sources in the platform’s anonymous all-to-all order book and execute on the best price for each trade. List trading delivers significant efficiency benefits to a
